Biden to reassure allies on first trip to Asia
For almost three months, President Joe Biden and his top foreign policy aides have been immersed in the Russian war in Ukraine, wrestling with how to punish Moscow and bolster the beleaguered Ukrainians. Biden is embarking on his first trip to Asia, hoping to reassure Asian allies that the United States is not too preoccupied with Ukraine to take a leading role in blunting the influence of China.
Biden has called China America’s chief global competitor. As the war in Ukraine settles into what may be a long slog, Biden is seeking to show that his administration can multitask when it comes to leading coalitions against aggressive superpowers.
Biden lands in South Korea today and heads to Japan three days later. ‘‘I think both countries are naturally worried – not because they doubt US desire or US aspiration, but more about the bandwidth the US really has,’’ said Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia Programme at the Stimson Centre, a foreign affairs think tank.
Biden announced a strategy for the Indo-Pacific region in February, but then ‘‘the war happened and we see that the US’s primary attention has been bogged down in Ukraine,’’ Sun said. Now, he added, Biden hopes to reassure Asian countries that ‘‘the US is committed to the region, and is not going to let the war in Ukraine completely distract from the region’’.
The president’s five-day trip includesmeetingswith South Korea’s newly elected president, Yoon Sukyeol, and with Japanese PrimeMinister Fumio Kishida. Biden will also hold a summit with the leaders of Australia, India and Japan as part of a meeting of the so-called Quad, a strategic partnership formed in part to counter China’s ascent.
Biden faces a host of challenges on the trip, including a looming intercontinental ballistic missile test by North Korea that threatens to upend his plans. South Korean officials said Wednesday that Washington and Seoul are preparing a joint commandand-control ‘‘Plan B’’ in case Pyongyang conducts a missile test this weekend.
North Korea has conducted an unprecedented number of missile tests this year, and China and Russia have drawn closer to North Korea in an effort to reduce US influence in the region. Leaders in Seoul said they plan to discuss ways to strengthen the deterrence capabilities of the United States and South Korea in the face of North Korea’s growing nuclear and weapons programme.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday US intelligence reflects the ‘‘genuine possibility’’ of a North Korean long-range missile test or nuclear test in connection with Biden’s visit. He said he had spoken with allies, including his counterpart in China, about what would happen if North Korea adopts amore aggressive posture.
‘‘We are prepared to make both short- and longer-term adjustments to our military posture as necessary to ensure that we are providing both defence and deterrence to our allies in the region and thatwe are responding to any North Korean provocation,’’ Sullivan said.
Biden also plans to unveil his banner economic vision for the AsiaPacific region. But he faces a steep credibility gap, particularly in Japan, where officials are still reeling after the United States, under President Donald Trump, pulled out of a major trade agreement in 2017 that it had brokered in the region.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said that while his country still wanted the United States to return to the free-trade deal originally known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Biden’s new ‘‘framework’’ shows his commitment to the Asia-Pacific region and to seeing the United States included in a new economic order there.
Yoon, South Korea’s new president, seeks to show his commitment to becoming a stronger ally of the United States and taking a more assertive role on the global stage as the world’s 10th-largest economy, rather than shaping foreign policy goals solely related to the country’s volatile neighbour to the north.
With the US-China competition and the Russian invasion of Ukraine reshaping the global order, it is increasingly important to reinforce the power of alliances, said Ahn Hoyoung, a former South Korean ambassador to the United States.
‘‘We’re very lucky that Mr Biden is the president. He has been emphasising the importance of alliances all the time,’’ Ahn said. ‘‘It is encouraging that he is coming to South Korea so early in the presidency of Yoon Suk-yeol.’’
In Japan, Kishida and Biden are expected to affirm their joint interest in peace in the Taiwan Strait amid China’s assertiveness towards Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing considers a breakaway province. Japan has dramatically stepped up its foreign policy efforts since the invasion of Ukraine, determined to show strong co-ordination with Western allies and counter the risk that China will be emboldened by Russia’s aggressiveness.
Biden hosted Southeast Asian leaders at the White House last week, and US officials announced $150 million (NZ$235m) in investments in Asia related to clean energy, maritime co-operation, Covid-19 and climate change. Still, China is the biggest trade partner of the Southeast Asian countries, tallying $685b, about double the figure of US trade with the region. –